Berks Catholic advances to district semifinals

DALLASTOWN - The most anticipated match came at the end of the long day.

Berks Catholic and Susquehannock, two contenders for the District 3-AA girls volleyball championship, ended quarterfinal pool play Wednesday night with a three-game match that featured many thrills and kept fans in Dallastown High's gym on the edge of their seats.

By the time the Saints and Warriors came together, both teams had clinched spots in Saturday's semifinals. However, they still went all-out against each other. Behind the play of hitter Sherelle Walker, Susquehannock took two of three games to win the pool play "championship."

Still, Berks Catholic accomplished its mission of making the semifinals and will face Berks archrival Brandywine Heights for the fifth time this season at 3 p.m. Saturday at Wilson.

Susquehannock with face fellow York-Adams member West York in the other semi.

The final is scheduled for 4:30.

"That's the way you want the night to go," said Saints coach Rick Fidler. "You have arguably the best two teams in the gym and they get to go after each other."

Berks Catholic took its first two matches with straight-set wins over West Perry and Lancaster Mennonite, as did Susquehannock.

The Saints looked like they had the upper hand with a 25-21 win in the first game against the Warriors.

The line of Sarah Moult and Erin Noga on the corner and Sarah Simpson in the middle found the floor on the attack, while freshman Courtney Wensel blocked at the net.

Attacks from Susquehannock's Walker and Caroline Savin were blunted by digs from Alaina Piszczek and Michele Chai.

Things looked even better in the second game as the Saints went up 9-1 with Piszczek serving eight consecutive points.

However, the Warriors and Walker came alive and chipped away their deficit until they tied it at 20. From there both teams kept exchanging sideouts until Walker scored a kill for a 26-25 lead, then successfully blocked a Saints attack for the 27-25 win.

Susquehannock took an early lead in the third game and kept it throughout despite two rallies by the Saints and won 25-16.

"That tells the story of the third match," Fidler said. "They go to their two big hitters and get points. We get points to stay alive, but we couldn't get to them."

Moult had 16 kills, 22 digs and seven aces over the three matches. Simpson had 18 kills, three digs and 14 blocks. Piszczek had 63 assists and 19 digs.

The first two matches weren't as intense for Berks Catholic, which won in three each time. While the starters did their thing, the Saints were able to give many of their substitutes significant action in both of the third games.

The Saints opened with a 25-14, 25-15, 25-15 win over West Perry and beat Lancaster Mennonite 25-11, 25-10, 27-25.

Against Lancaster Mennonite, none of the starters saw action in the third game and the Saints rallied to beat the Blazers' varsity.